Officials aim to reduce black infant mortality rate by 15% and the city's overall rate by 10% by 2017

City officials plan to set a goal of reducing Milwaukee's infant death rate to historic lows by 2017, lowering the black infant mortality rate by 15%, and the city's overall rate by 10%. »Read Full Article

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moparman1 - Why are saving the lives of babies a partisan issue? Can both sides just agree that they want to reduce/eliminate unplanned pregnancies so there are no choices to face about life? And yes, that would require the Right to admit contraceptives play a vital role because issues of public safety trump those of religion the last time I checked.

I'm happy that the city of Milwaukee is addressing a serious issue with serious plans and not simply giving fetuses the right to bear arms so they can defend themselves against infant mortality.

I agree the death rate has to be lowered. But just how much more taxpayer money will it take to get it accross to the racial group in question in the article? This is not a negative racial comment. It is a question of just how much more money will be spent without results. Why hasn't the community turned itself around with the millions of dollars already spent? Again I am in favor of lowering the death rate but at what cost and self help?

nothing in this article even mentions just what they plan on doing to correct this. There is no plan from what I read, just donations being tossed in for financial backing.... show me the plan Tom otherwise this is just talk, which is what Barrett is very good at!

Prosecute the parent??? No way. How about prosecuting the people who come up with these quaint ideas of co-sleeping. Babies belong in a crib face up, not beside some fat parent who might be drunk and rolls over on them.

Want to stop infant mortality????? Simple...young women wise up!!!! Close your legs.Until the black community takes responsibility...for all the fatherless homes...thank you WELFARE...this will never change.You can throw all the money we don't have at this...it's ignorance...and govt. inspired.

I totally agree. We always hear about kids in the inner city growing up fatherless and how irresponsible the men are. And it's true... but that begs the question... WHY DO THESE WOMEN KEEP SPREADING THEIR LEGS FOR THEM? If these guys can easily gets some without a job, responsibility or a future they are even going to try. It's up to the women to hold these men to some standards. I'm sorry but it's the women's fault.

Deebo...ultimately you are correct.It's sad but if the men don't care...we must implore women...after all it is the female species who carries, nurtures and who choose who the father will be. There are way too many 17,18 year old mothers- unmarried-more than one father- and then when she finally has to go to work...or goes out to party...Who does she leave the innocent baby or toddler with ...her new immature, "I don't give a damn about your kid"-boyfriend...who beats,punches,neglects or sexually abuses her baby.This cycle never ends...because their behavior never changes.Personal responsibility...not tax payer $$.

Well Deebo, I was ready to nail you to the cross with your statement, "it's the woman's fault" but then I realized you are right. Why would a woman, any woman, want to bear a child from a loser of a male -(notice, I didn't say "man")? Birth control is cheap and, in many cases, free. Abstinence is always free. Spending millions more dollars isn't going to solve anything. Early education in school about how having babies without the benefit of a working spouse, only leads to dead ends in life and, in many cases, the result is even worse than a dead end. Take young children on tours of single parent homes and see how they live and struggle every day. Take young children to the funerals of babies that were murdered by their drunk or drug induced mother as she rolled over them during the night. You have to start young.

Deebo--answer this--How do those women, some as young as eight and nine, know right from wrong? They've been born, but never raised by parents. The poor kids are little better then animals--AND IT'S NOT THIER FAULT!--IT'S OUR--for letting the lefts trash values be used to raise them! This is the fourth or fifth generation of these kids that have been breed by the neighborhood "STUD" papa! These "boys" are nothing but the breeding stock of the left!

if all the inner city women got together and said "you ain't getting none of this unless you got a job" you might see things turn around. Most men are motivated by sex and if they don't have to do anything to get it, they wont. These women are letting the lowest common denominator procreate, maybe a little selective breeding will help. Survival of the fittest, not the most irresponsible...

The women (and way, way underage girls) keep spreading their legs because we pay them to do it. And we pay them more for each time they are able to get pregnant. Simple. Quit paying them, and they will quit doing it. Better still, how about giving them $1000 cash money for voluntary sterilization, and welfare for one child only. That way, the responsibility is on them. In this day and age, with great birth control free, for pete's sake, how come only the self-supporting are using it? More importantly, how come we make social policy as if there is no such thing? That's just nuts.

I would like to take anyone who encouraged co-sleeping down to the milwaukee morque and see what your idea resulted in. Lefties come up with these emotional feel good ideas not thinking that maybe the reason parents and children in africa sleep together is because they live in an unheated one room hut.

If the people who come up with these policies could control their emotions and think critically maybe a dozen or so kids would be alive today instead of crushed under some parent or between the bed and the wall.

it is so funny to me how quick people are to judge others remember God has a way of humbling you. We should want to stop infant deaths no matter what color they are, no matter if it was an unplanned pregnancy, no matter if people are on welfare, as human beings we could be kind and help one another out!

I find it "funny" how liberals who probably go out and buy the best crib money can buy, encourage others of color to co-sleep. When is the last time you read about a white baby dying because a white parent co-slept with it??? Thats a good question. I think I'll post it above.

It is funny how people are completely ignorant of how and why the infant mortality rates in particular areas of Milwaukee are worse than in many third world countries, even though the people are well informed and educated above third world countries.

A 25-year-old mother of three told authorities she had been out drinking the night she placed her infant son face down in the bed she shared with the boy's father and 1-year-old sibling.

The boy, 6-week-old Demetrius L. Kimble, never awoke from the queen-sized bed that rested on the floor of his parent's littered room.

Porscha Bowman told an investigator that she considered herself to be "tipsy not drunk" when she returned to her sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment in the 600 block of N. 30th St., according to a medical examiner's report released Monday.

She said she went to a nearby tavern about 10:30 p.m. Friday, leaving the infant and his brother in the care of a 15-year-old relative, the report says."

5:37 p.m. CDT, September 27, 2011WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE— A mother's boyfriend is in custody as police continue to investigate the death of an 11-month-old girl. The man is suspected of causing the infant extensive external and internal injuries on September 25th that led to the infant's death on September 26th.

Children's Hospital started a program called Project Ujima to help victims and families of violence. Youth Intervention Specialist Gabe Doyle says, "When we first go into the emergency room, and we first meet with that family and they've been through what they've gone through. They are really happy to see that there is a program out there, because many of them feel isolated or alone."

My program is called jail for the abuser and foster care/adoption for the baby. Look how these people talk. They've been through what they've gone through. Thats like telling a bank robber, you poor dear that must have been very stressful robbing that bank. Stress can cause health problems. We need a program to reduce stress in bank robbers.